“What is the Matter with Mary Jane?”: Madeleine Smith, Legal Ambiguity, and the Gendered Aesthetic of Victorian Criminality

Feb. 1, 2002

What is the matter with Mary Jane? She’s perfectly well and she hasn’t a pain, And it’s lovely rice pudding for dinner again — What is the matter with Mary Jane? A.A. Milne [1] Like the little girl in A. A. Milne’s poem, accused poisoner Madeleine Smith was the object...